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Comment by antoko | Hacker News Reader

err is your google broken?

https://www.google.com/search?q=free+speech+arrest

I'd also argue that having speech consigned to these places[1] when the whole country is supposedly a free speech zone doesn't follow the spirit of the 1st Amendment. Also if they setup a free speech zone and you don't use it then you can be arrested for that

Obviously you can't be charged for "exercising free speech rights" since that isn't a crime, the charge is always something else like "disturbing the peace" or "resisting arrest" or some other trumped up nonsense.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

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There have been instances of police corruption where someone was wrongfully arrested, but they are almost universally never successfully charged (unless they did something really stupid like assaulting a police officer).

It is required by law to acquire a permit before protesting. This is very easy to do, everyone has permits for the July 4th protest already. The government has not historically blocked protest permit requests

It doesn't really matter if the charges stick, does it? If you arrest 100 people you're sending a message to future protesters.

Also, kind of ridiculous that you need a permit to protest.

It is not at all ridiculous that you need a permit to protest.

Take off the tinfoil for a moment and think rationally. What happens during a protest? Often, huge masses of people gather in a single public area (a street, a park, a government building, etc). While protesters are generally well-intentioned, wherever there are large gatherings of people, there are criminally-minded folk who seek to exploit this via looting, theft, assault, and other wonderful things that the dregs of humanity like to perform. Additionally, it often gums up public works, traffic, etc. It's important that the police (yes, most police officers are just middle class folks like us that are interested in preserving general peace) be aware of these types of things so that they can provide protection for both the protesters and the citizens of the city.

Also keep in mind that some of these criminally minded folk could be members of the police acting as Agent Provocateurs, ala the 68 Democratic Convention[0]

[0]http://books.google.com/books?id=8_HWOTtdsMUC&pg=RA1-PA126&l...

you've already made up your mind so I'm not sure there is much point in continuing but feel free to read this.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/police-arrestin...

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